Abstract: A swarming agent architecture provides a distributed, decentralized, agent-based computing environment applicable to ground-based surveillance. The approach, called Sensor Network Integration through Pheromone Fusion, or “SNIPF,” provides an end-to-end demonstration that integrates self-contained sensor/communication nodes with novel swarming algorithms to detect foot and vehicular movement through a monitored area with minimal configuration and maintenance. A plurality of computational nodes distributed within the environment and, depending upon the way in which they are deployed, the various nodes are operative to sense the local environment, receive a message from a neighboring node, and transmit a message to a neighboring node. Given these capabilities, the nodes can collectively determine the presence and/or movement of a target and communicate this information to a user.